Things that Change
by Blizzard96
Summary: This is an AU where the KHR characters all were born in the A:TLA universe and gives a brief glimpse into all of their lives. Oneshot. Please read and review!


**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR or A:TLA**

~~~~~Appa's back~~~~~

Sokka rolled around on the saddle attempting to find a more comfortable position. "This is booooooooring!" he groaned, dangling his arms over the edges of the saddle. The others looked at him (well, not so much for Toph) in amusement.

"Is someone being a sissy?" Toph mocked, smirking down at the Water tribe warrior. Sokka glared back at her.

"Calm down guys!" Aang yelled from his position on Appa's head. He twisted around to grin at his friends. "We still have a long way to go before we reach land, so let's get along!" Both Sokka and Toph rolled their eyes.

"Aang's right guys," Katara chimed in. "If we can't get along for one hour, we'll be killing each other by the time Appa finally lands, and then who will take down the Fire Lord?"

"It's still boring," Sokka muttered under his breath. Katara let out a sigh of frustration and whirled to face the other person in the saddle.

"Some help you are," she accused lightheartedly.

"I would've stepped in if they actually had started fighting," Zuko replied, continuing to relax against the saddle. Katara snorted and went back to trying to get comfortable on the saddle.

~~~~~Earthbending Tournament~~~~~

"In this corner, the reigning champion," the announcer yelled, drawing both cheers and boos from the crowd. "Give it up for The Boulder!" A muscular man walked out on stage with a wide smirk.

"The Boulder is ready to bury his opponents in a rockalanche!" The man loudly yelled, raising his fists into the air.

"In the other corner," the announcer continued. "A new challenger who's bending packs a punch! Give up for…Knuckle!" A white haired teenager ran onto the tournament floor with a huge grin on his face.

"I'm ready to fight TO THE EXTREME!" the teen yelled, taking a few practice swings.

The Boulder looked at him condescendingly. "The Boulder wishes to know how a young boy managed to defeat all the other opponents."

The teen scratched his head in confusion. "I'm not extremely sure! I just punched them once and they went down!"

The Boulder stared at the teen incredulously. "The Boulder does not understand. Can this boy even Earthbend?"

The teen narrowed his eyes. "Of course I can EXTREMELY Earthbend! Are you scared of fighting me?"

The Boulder gave a confident smirk. "The Boulder, scared of you? Impossible!"

"EXTREME!" The teen responded happily. "Let's get this fight started TO THE EXTREME then!" The teen advanced on the older man, stomping his foot on the ground to shoot a pillar of earth at the other fighter who barely dodged it. The Boulder frowned and responded by levitating a chunk of rock and launching it toward the teen.

The teen grinned; it was exactly what he had been waiting for. He widened his stance for balance, drew his fist back and punched right through the rock. The blow sent chunks of earth flying into the crowd, forcing many of the people to take cover. The white haired teenager began to run at The Boulder, arms guarding his face from lingering dust in the air.

The Boulder overcame his shock and began hurling spikes of stone at the teen, who dodged them like a pro. The man gritted his teeth and raised walls of earth in front of him to stop the teenager. He smirked at his handiwork and began to think up some taunts when he heard his walls starting to collapse. That was impossible. Surely no one was strong enough to punch through solid rock! Suddenly…

"I will take you down TO THE EXTREME!" was the last thing The Boulder heard before his last stone wall crashed inward and the teenager managed to land a strong uppercut to The Boulder's chin. The Boulder landed spread-eagle on the ground, unconscious and a shocked expression still on his face, while the teenager kept his defensive stance, warily eyeing his opponent's body.

After a few minutes, the teen relaxed and smiled widely. The announcer looked a bit shaken but still managed to signal that the teenager had won. "Um… Your new champion!" he gestured to the white haired teen. "Knuckle!" The crowd burst into applause as the Tournament belt was bestowed to the grinning teenager.

~~~~~Earth Kingdom Refugee Town~~~~~

"I'll be with you in a minute!" A smiling black haired teenager exclaimed as he toted some dishes towards the sink. Hurriedly wiping his hands off on his apron, he strode over to the table.

"Can I help you ma'am?" he asked, giving her a smile. The woman cheeks dusted pink as she ordered some tea and sushi. "Coming right up!" Giving one final grin, he walked back to the kitchen to deliver the order.

The chef looked up and groaned. "There are too many customers today," he muttered, handing the teen a plate. The teen laughed.

"But that's a good thing! It means we must be making good food or else no one would be here," He smiled. The chef rolled his eyes and grunted in agreement.

"That plate's for the man at table two. Don't keep him waiting." The teen nodded and headed back to the tables.

"Your food, sir," he said, grinning. The man nodded his thanks and the boy turned to go take more orders.

Suddenly, the cloth flaps covering the doorway were torn down as two men stormed into the small restaurant. The shorter of the men carried a heavy looking chain. The men glared at all the patrons and smirked at how everyone cringed away from them. The shorter of the two whispered something to the taller one, who nodded and stepped forward.

"Everyone, get down on the ground!" he yelled, raising his palm and shooting out a burst of flames into the air.

"Firebenders!" A woman shrieked, ducking under the table. The other patrons immediately dropped to the floor, covering their heads.

"Feh," The shorter one scoffed. "The people here are weak. Bunch of useless Water tribe refugees and Earth kingdom peasants-" he was cut off when he found the edge of a sharp sword jabbed under his chin.

"Leave now," the wielder spoke in a cold tone. The shorter man lifted his eyes from the blade to meet the teenagers. They were cold and hard.

The shorter one tried to maintain his dignity. "Ha, you think you can frighten me?" The other thief had frozen from the suddenness of the teen's attack, but he managed to regain his bearings.

"Bad move, brat" he snarled at the teenager while collecting flames in the palm of hand.

The teen sensed what he was about to attempt and shoved himself away from the shorter thief with his foot, barely managing to dodge the oncoming flame. He slashed forward with his sword, causing the taller one to retreat quickly to avoid being sliced by the katana.

The black haired teen advanced, whirling his sword around to slice through the fireballs sent his direction. He was finally able to reach the Firebender and slammed the hilt of his sword on the man's head, effectively knocking him out.

The victory was short lived as the other thief had just managed to recover and used his chain to tangle around the teen's blade and yank it from his hands. The blade skittered across the floor, leaving the black haired teen defenseless.

"You're out of luck," the thief snarled. "We were just here for the money, but now you're gonna have to die! No one makes fools of us!" The teen's eyes narrowed as he was backed up into a corner.

Right in his peripheral vision was a bucket of water. The teen smirked. "I'll give you one more chance," the teen said slowly. "Get out of here."

The thief let out a loud laugh. "Tryin' to sound tough? I don't know if you noticed, but you're in no position to be making demands. Why don't you just-?" The man never got a chance to finish that sentence as a whip of water rushed to smack him in the face.

The thief went down hard as the teen retracted the water. "Don't come back here," he stated calmly, sending the water back to the bucket. The patrons got up nervously as the chef helped the teen throw the rogues out and went back to their positions. The teen headed back towards the kitchen.

"Why didn't you help out?" he asked the chef. The man just grinned at him.

"You looked like you were handling it well." The teen allowed himself a genuine smile.

~~~~~A Mansion~~~~~

"Again!" the instructor yelled, knocking the young boy to the ground once more.

"To…le…rate," The kid sniffled, staggering to his feet. He glanced over his shoulder to see his mother coolly watching him from the shade of an umbrella while one of the maids fanned her. Unbeknownst to his mother, he could clearly hear every word she said to the servant.

"That was better than last time," the maid said timidly. His mother snorted.

"There was barely a spark. If he cannot grasp the concept of Firebending soon, he will bring shame to the whole family. Our legacy cannot be tarnished by him. If only he were more like his older brothers," the woman took a sip of water.

The child glared at the ground. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't understand how to Firebend! Most kids couldn't until they were at least thirteen and he was only eight. The boy cried out as a stick hit his head.

"Pay attention!" the instructor snapped.

"Y-yes, sir!" he whimpered and began going through the forms again. Breathe in, breathe out. This time a small flame was emitted from his fist.

"That's more like it," the instructor nodded. The kid nearly cried in relief.

"Hmph," he heard his mother sneer. "His eldest brother was able to fight Firebenders twice his age when he was eight." Whatever pride the child had from producing the flame immediately disintegrated as his shoulders slumped.

"Again!" his instructor cried, shocking the child out of his thoughts.

"Y-yes…" he muttered, assuming the stance again. This time there was no flame.

"Worthless!" his instructor yelled, causing the boy to flinch.

"I-I'm sorry, sir! Please don't hit me!" he cried, tears rolling down his cheeks. The instructor brought up his ruler and…

ZZZZTT!

The instructor landed on his back, stunned from the lightning the child had just emitted. The boy finally opened his eyes to see his instructor lying on the ground.

"Forgive me, sir!" the kid squeaked, frantically running into the mansion for medical supplies.

"Ohohoho!" his mother chuckled. "There may be hope for him yet…"

~~~~~Earth Kingdom Market~~~~~

A teenager growled as he watched kids dart through the market and almost knock him over. "Watch where you're going, brats!" he yelled. The kids took no heed of his word and he shook his head, striding back to his cart.

He sighed as he took a seat behind the cart and examined his wares. All the fireworks were lined up in neat orderly rows, organized by type and design. He allowed himself a moment of pride before leaning back in his chair and staring up at the blue sky. Life had been so dull lately, he almost wished he were home… Almost.

He shook away the bad memories associated with his family and tried to focus on the market crowd. It was always noisy with the bartering and shrieking of children. The silver haired teen was tempted to just plug his ears and ignore them, but the last time he'd done that some of his fireworks had been stolen by a bunch of brats.

Granted, usually he wasn't very busy. The only time anyone needed fireworks was if a festival was coming up, but the next festival wouldn't be for a few weeks, so business had been slow. Most of his days were just spent lounging around near his stand with maybe a few people glancing over his wares, but never buying anything.

He was jerked out of his idle thoughts when he saw a few official looking officers enter the market. That was rare. Usually the officers would stay up in the richer areas of the city, not even bothering to deal with crimes that happened in the poor communities on the outskirts. He was further intrigued when they started asking around with the other vendors.

The fruit vendor talked with the men in quiet words that the silver haired teen couldn't quite make out. The vendor pointed directly at the teenager and the officers began heading in his direction. The teen gritted his teeth and put on an expression of irritation.

"Sir, do you own this stand?" one of the officers asked, casting an imposing shadow over the teen's stand.

"What's it to you?" the teen snarled.

"Answer the question," the officer stated, coolly glaring at the teen. The teen rolled his eyes at their pathetic excuse for intimidation.

"Yeah, I own it," he muttered.

"Your name?"

"Doesn't matter."

"…Occupation?"

"Obviously, I sell fireworks," the teen stated sarcastically, gesturing to the stand. "Is that all you wanted to ask?" He could see the officers were getting irritated and smirked.

"Sir, is it true that you were once part of the Fire Nation?" The teen stiffened.

"What do you mean? Last time I checked this wasn't the Fire Nation," the silver haired teen attempted to dodge the question. The officer's eyes narrowed.

"We have reports stating that you were once part of a royal family in the Fire Nation. Though the war is over, we'd like to take you in for questioning to be sure that you aren't a sympathizer of the previous Fire Lord." The teen glared at them with renewed vigor.

"Look, I'm not part of the Fire Nation anymore and I never want to be associated with them again. Now I just sell fireworks, so you can either buy some, or get out," he said in a fierce tone. The officers shared a look.

"Sir, we're going to need you to come with us," the officer intoned, grabbing the teen's shoulder. The teen felt what little self-control he had left snap.

"Oh, hell no!" he snarled, flames bursting to life around the officer's hand. The man yelped and retracted it, staring warily at the teen. "Get out of here before I burn you alive."

"Incapacitate him!" the officer roared. The other officers rushed forward and clamped stone shackles around the teen's wrists and ankles. He glared at them as he was led away from his cart, but knew that starting a fight wouldn't help him.

"I swear," he threatened. "If I'm missing one firework from that stand when I get back, you'll pay."

"I don't think you'll be returning," the officer growled, pushing him forward.

~~~~~Military Training~~~~~

"Herbivores," the black-haired teen snarled, glaring down the new initiates. "Do you know what you're here to do?" None of the recruits spoke, shuffling nervously under the intense gaze. "You are here to keep the peace in the Earth Kingdom." There were a few nods.

"S-Sir," one of them began timidly. "What kind of training do you want us to do." The teen seemed to consider this.

"Split up into pairs and spar so I can assess what you are capable of." The men immediately began to do what they were told.

"Why do we have to listen to that kid?" one man asked another under his breath. "He's younger than all of us!"

"Shut up!" The other hissed. "He managed to take down an entire Fire Nation tank battalion on his own!"

"You're kidding, right?" the first man asked, watching the teen roam around the training grounds and observe the spars. The other man just shook his head.

"Alright." The men jerked up at the sound of the teen's voice. "I've decided that I will test some of you individually. You." He glared at one of the recruits.

"M-Me?"

"Yes. Stop stalling," the teen glared at him. The man took a deep breath and strode forward. "Bending is allowed," the black haired teen announced, giving no warning before rushing forward to land a kick to the man's chest.

The man stumbled back as the wind was knocked out of him, but recovered and shot a pillar of stone towards the teenager. The teen simply tilted his head slightly to the left and the rock sailed past him.

"What are you aiming for?" the teen snapped. "Attack me like you mean it." The black haired teen grabbed a pair of metal pipes tied to his pants and whirled them through the air. He then rushed forward once more, a killer intent swirling around him. The man barely had time to raise a shield of earth, and even that was broken down. The fight ended abruptly when the teen had his weapon an inch from crushing the man's wind pipe.

"Hn," the teen said, withdrawing his weapons. "Average at best." He strode away from the man and turned back to the shocked recruits. "This training session will not be easy. If you herbivores don't think you can handle it, leave now. Those who remain will be trained by my methods in the art of metal bending. Any protests will get you bitten to death." Needless to say, half the recruits were out the door before the statement was finished.

The teen glanced over the remaining men. "Now that the most herbivorous ones are gone, let's begin."

~~~~~Earth Kingdom Outskirts~~~~~

"Pay up the money, byon! You owe us!" A blonde laughed maniacally as he banged on a crumbling wooden door. "Open up now, or we'll break your door down~"

The door creaked open slowly and a tired looking boy shuffled out. "P-please just give us another day! My sister has gotten very ill and I haven't been able to work!"

"What do you think, byon?" the blonde asked his companion.

"We will report this to our boss," the other replied, pushing up his glasses. He glared down at the man. "It would be unwise to keep us waiting very long. We will return tomorrow with his decision." The man nodded feverishly.

"Of course! Thank you!" he closed his door quickly as the two men left.

"Che! You're too soft! The boss is gonna be mad!"

"Quiet." The two teens returned to a converted shed and found their boss lounging on a chair in the back.

"Ah, Ken! Chikusa! I trust the collections went without any complications?" he grinned dangerously. The two teens felt themselves shiver.

"Well, all except one, boss…" Ken stuttered, avoiding his boss' eyes.

"Oh…?" their boss glared down at them. "And who defied us?"

"The man who borrowed money for his sister's medicine," Chikusa stated, shuffling a bit.

"I see… We'll just have to have a little…chat with him," their boss smiled. "If he doesn't pay up the money tomorrow, you'll go and get it from him somehow. I know!" he brightened. "Why don't you take our newest member with you?"

"W-what?" Ken spluttered. "But… she's a-a girl, byon!"

"Is there a problem?"

"N-no."

"Good. Now I believe you two were about to leave?" he asked innocently. Ken and Chikusa immediately felt their bodies whirl around and get forced out the door.

"I hate when he does that," Ken muttered.

"I agree," Chikusa nodded. "As much as I respect our boss, that blood bending is uncomfortable."

~~~~~Meadow outside the Earth Kingdom~~~~~

"Keep dodging," the tutor stated, sending another barrage of rocks towards his student.

"Owwww!" the brunette teen yelped.

"If you don't activate your flames soon, I'll have to fight you for real," his tutor said indifferently, launching spears of stone.

"I can't activate my flames here!" his student protested, ducking a projectile. "There might be people that see I'm a Firebender!"

"So what?" his tutor asked mercilessly. "The war's been over for a while."

"Still!" his student yelled, jumping to the left. "It's not like everything's going to be fine overnight! The Earth Kingdom officers are hunting down anyone who might be from the Fire Nation." The student found himself on the receiving end of a heavy earth mallet.

"Stop whining. I keep telling you that you need to be proud of your heritage."

"That's easy for you to say!" the brunette yelped. "You're an Earthbender! They aren't after you!" He grunted as a pillar of earth caught him in the stomach and made him nauseated from the impact.

"Alright, we'll take a break for now," his tutor said, making the teen sigh in relief as he checked the damage that had been done by the spar. The brunette pulled out the small lunch he'd packed for himself. "I believe it's time you started on a journey." The tutor said suddenly, causing the teen to begin choking on the meat he'd just consumed.

"W-what?" he cried, finally managing to swallow.

"You've been training for a while already and it's time you see more of the world, including the Earth Kingdom."

"B-But…"

"No buts. You set out today."

"Today?! I'm not ready to leave right now!"

"Why not?"

"Well, I don't have any food or clothes or anything! Leaving right now would be insane!"

"You're right," his tutor admitted.

"R-really?" the brunette asked hopefully.

"Yes. You have the rest of the day to prepare. You leave tomorrow morning."

"Hiiiieeee?!"

~~~~~Appa's back~~~~~

Sokka suddenly awoke from the odd dream he was having and sat up. It was night already and they were still flying across the ocean; the other members of their team were sound asleep. Aang whirled around to look at Sokka with concern.

"What's wrong?" he asked, worried about the spooked look on his friend's face.

Sokka frowned, attempting to recall the events that had taken place in his dream. Already the details were fading. "I'm not sure… I just get the feeling we'll be meeting some very interesting people soon…"

**A/N: The plot bunnies... They're everywhere... No seriously. I had this idea for a story at like... midnight and then I was like, "I should write this!", so sorry if characters are OOC or if it doesn't really make sense...**

**So this is just going to remain a oneshot unless enough people ask me to continue it... *hint hint* but it was actually a lot of fun to write! :D**

**The setting is a little bit after the war with the Fire Nation is over, but there's still tension between people from the Fire Nation and other Kingdoms/Tribes. Aang and the others are still traveling together because... uh... well just imagine it's like a couple months after the end of the war and Zuko's taking a break or something weird like that. I don't know...**

**As for the KHR... Tsuna, Gokudera and Lambo are all Firebenders (though Lambo's more of a lightningbender). Yamamoto, Mukuro and Chrome are Waterbenders (though Mukuro prefers bloodbending). Ryohei, Reborn and Hibari are all Earthbenders (but Hibari can metalbend). I chose their bending to match their personalities and fighting styles as best I could...**

**Anyways, please, please, PLEASE review! I appreciate constructive criticism, but please no outright flaming... Thanks :D**


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